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Position Description:
Position Summary
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a prestigious research and development organization that plays a vital role in the study of the universe. Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) is a nonprofit organization that manages and operates the NRAO under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The Observatory is a hub for technological and scientific collaboration, operating state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the international scientific community. The Observatory has been instrumental in the study of black holes, galaxies, and the early universe.
At NRAO, we are recruiting a Technical Specialist to assist in the design, development, operations and maintenance of radio telescopes and associated support systems including environmental monitoring and water vapor radiometers.
The position will be based in either Albuquerque, NM or Socorro, NM.
What You Will be Doing:
- Support electronic design, layout, assembly, testing and troubleshooting in collaboration with engineers and other technical staff.
- Procurement and testing of microwave components and circuits including polarizers, couplers, amplifiers, cables, and printed circuit boards.
- Fabricate, assemble, and test prototype and production units.
- Utilize standard test apparatus or devise test equipment set-ups to conduct functional, operational, environmental, and reliability performance of prototype and production units.
- Analyze and interpret test data. Document and publish test results.
- May assist in the field installation and maintenance of prototype and production units.
- Other duties may be assigned for all positions based on the applicant’s skills and the Observatory’s needs.
Work Environment
Work is mission driven, team oriented and typically performed in an office setting within a research or development environment. The successful candidate may occasionally be required to work outdoors or climb on antenna to heights greater than 40 feet above the ground. Candidate may be required to travel domestically and internationally by air carrier and to travel by car between NRAO sites.
Who You Are:
Education
- Associate’s degree in electronics or a closely related field
- While not required, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering or closely related field is preferred
Experience
- Minimum of ten years of experience in design, manufacture, and/or maintenance and repair of some or all the following technical areas: Antennas, Microwave and RF circuits and systems including oscillators, amplifiers and mixers, and ADC/DAC devices.
- While not required, fifteen years of experience in technical areas as described above is preferred
Skills and Competencies
- High level of competency in Microsoft software products and web-based systems, Visio and SharePoint.
- Attention to detail is critical
- Highly organized
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Problem solving skills
- Ability to work well in a team environment
- A strong foundation in electrical or electronics engineering technology
- Knowledge of RF, analog, and digital circuit design along with specific test and measurement techniques
- Use of various types of electronics test equipment and familiarity with automated test setups to support general test and measurement
Additional Requirement
- Must hold and maintain a valid New Mexico driver’s license.
Observatory employees must be authorized to work in the United States. The Observatory presently cannot sponsor H-1B Visas for this position.
Safety Sensitive
The selected candidate must successfully pass a post-offer, pre-employment/pre-placement drug screen. Failure to pass the screen will disqualify the candidate from employment consideration for a period of six months from the date of the results.
Total Rewards:
Compensation
The starting salary/hourly rate of this position is between $33.66-$39.65 per hour. Factors which may affect starting pay within this range may include; education, experience, skills, competencies, other qualifications of the successful candidate, as well as internal equity and labor market conditions.
Benefits:
Associated Universities, Inc (AUI) offers a comprehensive benefits package addressing the needs of employees and their families with most benefits beginning on the first day of employment, subject to eligibility requirements. AUI provides:
- Excellent paid time off (13 holidays, annual accrual of up to 24 vacation days)
- Medical, dental and vision plans are effective on the first day of employment.
- AUI’s retirement benefit contributes an amount equal to 10 percent of a qualified participant’s base pay with no required employee contribution.
- Click Total Rewards for more information.
Application Instructions:
Select the “Apply” button above. Please be prepared to upload your current CV/Resume and a cover letter describing interest and suitability for the position.
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement:
AUI is an equal opportunity employer. To view our complete statement, please visit https://public.nrao.edu/careers/. If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, you may submit your request by sending an email to [email protected]. PM20
Skills Required
- Associate's degree in electronics or a closely related field
- At least 10 years of experience in the design, manufacture, maintenance, or repair of antennas, microwave and RF circuits and systems, or ADC/DAC devices
- Valid New Mexico driver's license
- Authorization to work in the United States
- Successful completion of a post-offer, pre-employment drug screen
- Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering or a closely related field
- At least 15 years of experience in the specified technical areas
What We Do
Developed over the past seven years in collaboration with 60,000 human agents, Apollo is a breakthrough language model for objective-oriented conversational agents. Apollo replaces the transformer architecture of traditional LLMs with a neuro-symbolic architecture that couples the conversational skills of generative AI with the predictability and actionability of rule-based AI, making it better suited for agents. Companies of any kind can fine-tune the Apollo base model on a specific task and deploy conversational agents that work on their behalf. These fine-tuned agents can continuously improve from human feedback, which is integrated into their updated versions. They further feature fine-grained control, the capacity to adhere to the deploying company’s policies and a white-box view of their operations. With native tool use, defined scope and guardrails and superior steerability, Apollo Agents outclass LLM Agents across all conversational use-cases. Apollo does not train on company data, instead, it can be pre-integrated with any number of internal systems, and seamlessly call the relevant API endpoint whenever necessary. Like transformer-based LLMs, Apollo has a “system prompt”, broken down to structured, conditional policies. Workflows and tools are native to Apollo and do not rely on function calling or chaining. This enables 100% success rate in executing complex API calls and the ability to return grounded answers in each interaction from any number of endpoints or sources. Unlike transformer-based LLMs, Apollo is fine-tuned at the interaction level. In the Simulator, companies can generate automated conversations simulating the agent in production in front of users. They then proceed to fine-tuning the agent by correcting its output in each unsatisfactory interaction. This process can be repeated continuously to improve the performance and alignment of the agent. Unlocked with Apollo are some exciting new agentic use-cases, including the ability for companies to responsibly communicate with their customers using conversational AI, and to sell their products and services without the need for human involvement, the example featured in the Live Demo Agent.
